diff --git a/fs/nfs/nfs4proc.c b/fs/nfs/nfs4proc.c
index 92cd8c86b201..5ecaf7b6b0fa 100644
--- a/fs/nfs/nfs4proc.c
+++ b/fs/nfs/nfs4proc.c
@@ -5799,6 +5799,14 @@ static int nfs4_proc_set_acl(struct inode *inode, const void *buf, size_t buflen
 	do {
 		err = __nfs4_proc_set_acl(inode, buf, buflen);
 		trace_nfs4_set_acl(inode, err);
+		if (err == -NFS4ERR_BADOWNER || err == -NFS4ERR_BADNAME) {
+			/*
+			 * no need to retry since the kernel
+			 * isn't involved in encoding the ACEs.
+			 */
+			err = -EINVAL;
+			break;
+		}
 		err = nfs4_handle_exception(NFS_SERVER(inode), err,
 				&exception);
 	} while (exception.retry);